Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Ava’s strict parents tried to suppress her startling beauty, high intellect, and peculiar abilities, until Ava secures a scholarship to Radcliffe in 1950. There she becomes entangled with another freshman, fearless Lauren Bell, whose family has deep roots in Cambridge. Lauren knows that they'll be invited to join the secret Lilith Society and live with other student witches, but Ava is mystified. As she grapples with the long-hidden truth about herself, a perilous passion ignites between her and Harvard student Jamie Mather, a descendant of the infamous Puritan witch-hunters who persecuted Lauren’s ancestors. Even though she and Ava are blood sisters, Lauren is hell-bent on derailing Ava and Jamie’s love. Turning to magic’s dark side, Lauren puts herself at grave risk while Ava discovers revelatory letters written during the era of the Salem witch trials by the first witch of Cambridge and founder of the Lilith Society. Hoffman’s (The Invisible Hour, 2024) latest sagely bewitching immersion in New England history, magic, misogyny, and resistance incisively parallels the colonial assaults against women accused of witchery with McCarthyism and its witch hunts targeting communists, educators, creatives, and gay men. Spiked with fascinating facts, incandescent with lush evocations of nature and the supernatural, and propelled by ravishing and suspenseful struggles for love against all odds, this is an enrapturing, illuminating, and slyly relevant saga. HIGH-DEMAND

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Two young witches come of age and power while attending a women’s college in the 1950s. Ava Abbot didn’t think she’d ever leave her tiny town of Genesis, Maine, or the apple farm where she grew up with controlling parents, but when she gets a mysterious scholarship to attend Radcliffe College, she’s off in a heartbeat. There she meets roommate Lauren Bell, a well-off orphan who’s always been aware of her magical inheritance. The two are invited to join the Lilith Society, a secret organization for Radcliffe witches where women support and learn from each other. As the two grow, they find themselves pulled in opposite directions: Ava is drawn to Jamie Mather, youngest son of an influential family and descendant of infamous witch hunter Cotton Mather. Meanwhile, still hurt from the losses of her childhood, Lauren tries to find a way to rid herself of her heart. Against the backdrop of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare, as well as classmates going missing, the two girls must take care of themselves and each other if they want to make it to graduation. Hoffman again draws on lore and a strong sense of place to root her tale of magic, feminism, and sisterly love. Her characters shine, not just Ava and Lauren, but side characters such as Ava’s friend Maureen, a working-class witch, and Lauren’s cautiously gay brother Lionel, a doctor, fill out the world of Cambridge and make it feel lived in. Although the prose can lean didactic at times, with some lines painfully on the nose—a witch in 1695 writes in a letter, “Women belong to us, the lawmakers had decided.Your body, our choice, they said”—the historical parallel of the Red Scare and general patriarchal society of ’50s Cambridge with the history of witches and witch trials works well. This is a book that knows what it wants to say and says it. A welcome novel for Hoffman fans and readers of fantastical fiction. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This enticing series starter from Hoffman (Practical Magic) chronicles the lives of two 1950s college students who bond over witchcraft. Ava Abbot has always felt like an outsider in her small town in Maine, so she is thrilled to leave it behind when she gets a scholarship to Radcliffe College. There, she meets wealthy classmate Lauren Bell, who introduces Ava to the Lilith Society, a haven for witches that was started in the 17th century. Lauren and Ava move into Lilith House alongside other female witches, and Lauren helps Ava embrace her newly discovered powers. As the women navigate love affairs—Lauren with a tattoo artist and Ava with Jamie Mather, whose ancestors were involved in the Salem witch trials—they learn that no magic spell can overcome the emotional toll of surrendering their hearts to love. Hoffman brings to life the intense bond shared by Ava and Lauren, whose friendship withstands typical coming-of-age romantic angst as well as the ostracism they face for being different. Their only consolation is that they are not the first women to be shunned, as they learn of the witches who came before them, especially those who were persecuted in the witch trials. Hoffman proves she’s still capable of magic. Agent: Amanda Urban, CAA. (Sept.)